Coyote Run
by nclanceman
Summary: A downed UFO has to be cleared. I want to make a series out of this so please read and review.


Coyote Run  
  
The Skyranger circled the field. Outside was a bright and sunny day. Over the farmyard, it would have been an ideal place for children to swim or play, if it wasn't for the UFO that was gunned down. The smoke clouded everything the pilots was, but it was the troopers who needed to worry. The pilot got on the intercom.  
"Stand up. Get ready to jump."  
The red light turned on, and every trooper stood up. Howes, in his heavy weapons platform, gave a thumbs-up signal, and shut his hatch. If you've never seen a HWP, you probably don't live in a city, since they're used as alien peacekeeping devices. A HWP is a desk sized tank with only two weapons, A powered 30cal. machine gun, or rocket launcher, each stationed over the pilots shoulder, and whatever sidearm the driver has. Howes, thankfully, was driving a .30cal.  
"Thirty seconds!"  
"Thirty seconds!" the troopers echoed as the yellow light flashed on. A swarm of bolts were clicked. I reached forward to hook the HWP up to the line so it's parachute would open correctly, and did the same for myself. I then clicked the bolt on my rifle and pulled the slide on my 10mm pistol. I checked all of my equipment: three fragmentation grenades, two smoke grenades, four rifle clips and two pistol clips.  
"Good Luck, X-COM! Knock em' dead"  
The rear ramp opened, and the green light flashed on. Howes drove off the side, and we jumped. The prop blast screamed in my ears, and then I looked down. The farmyard where the downed craft was had a barn about ten yards from a stable, separated by a garden and a pathway directly between the barn and garden. An alternate way to the UFO was by way wheatfield. The problem with that was if any aliens were hiding in the fields, we wouldn't know until we ran into them.  
I landed before I knew it and covered. I was about five yards from the rear end of the barn, covered by large bushes. Everyone formed on me within two minutes. We kind of looked funny in our deep purple armor and the Walsh and Lowe in their powered armor suits that made them look like two steel bouncers at a Hollywood club.  
"Walsh, get your flamethrower and burn that wheat field. Lowe, and Catherine, come with me; we're gonna clear that barn so that Cathy here can set up a perch and play sniper. Howes, Bates, and Case, hold for orders. Acknowledged?"  
"Yes sir!"  
"Then move out."  
  
I waited until Walsh started flaming the field before we got near the wide open doorway, unique to barns and hangars. When the fields lit up, we had the initiative. I pulled the pin on a frag grenade and threw it in. The explosion was deafening, and Lowe came up from behind me and laid waste to the room with his Browning Lawmaker Squad Automatic Rifle. When I looked in, there were three dead Sectoids - you know the type, grey, small bodies, big grey heads, huge eyes- in the room. Catharine wasted no time. She slung her rifle over her shoulder, drew her pistol, and ran straight for the stairs. Before I could get to her, she was up the stairs, and I hear one gunshot.  
"Oh my god..."  
"Catharine, what happened, are you okay?" I blurted out over the radio.  
"Im fine sir, he killed himself."  
"Well move the body, and get to the window, we need the cover."  
I changed the radio channels from Cathy to everyone and ordered Howes, Bates, and Case, with his shotgun, to move up to the opening in the wall between the barn pathway and the garden. I then ran to the garden wall opening and threw a smoke grenade on the other side.  
"Howes, you're up."  
"Why me?"  
Howes didn't waste any time and put they HWP in overdrive. He pivoted the tracks of the tiny tank and asked, "Ready?" I gave him the thumbs up, and he sped off, while Cathy, only a floor above, kept watch of him. He got to the UFO , I then looked at Cathy, who gave the Ok signal. I then got Case, Bates, and Lowe to form a tactical line, which had each of us covering a different direction. We moved low and fast. I was scared to death. Now we were in a tactical disadvantage, not only were we encased by the smoke of my grenade, but that bright and sunny day I was so fond of only minutes ago, made the white smoke blinding. An immeasurable amount of time, a second or an eternity, passed. A single green plasma bolt charged every hair on my head. I panicked - with good reason, mind you - and fired my weapon to the left. Case joined me in shooting, while Lowe covered all of our right. Three more plasma bolts flew: high, low, and an inch away from my chest, but I didn't stop firing.  
"I can't see him!" Cathy lamented.  
"Hold on sir, I've got him." Howes growled over his oxygen mask.  
The roar of his .30cal machine gun came from everywhere, but nothing died!  
My rifle clicked, out of ammo, and held it in one hand, while I grabbed my pistol with the other. The smoke started to clear, and a dark figure stood out in the haze. I shot the figure three times, killing it.  
"Anyone else, Cathy?" I asked, with an extremely audible hint of sarcasm. The crack of her rifle caused my heart to jump in my throat.  
"Just one. Clear."  
  
Everyone met me at the UFO door. It was fairly small, only 320 square feet tops, but inside , as we'd learned from experience, were two rooms which translated into deathtraps. I got everyone to form a door square, with one X-Com agent one each side of the door; left, right, and front, crouched while others were standing behind them even if they should miss. As if for visual aid, another Sectoid exited the UFO, or tried, he was killed by gunfire from three people, and a .30cal machine gun. While the door was open, we threw in grenades to all directions; forward, left and right diagonal. The wait was forever and I spent it reloading my rifle. The explosions rang throughout the metal craft and we ran in. Nothing.  
"Case, Walsh, Cathy, go left, Everyone else, go right." I ordered.  
They snapped to my commands. I holstered my pistol, took my rifle in both hands and ran for the right door. I then opened the door. The door lead to a small curved pathway to, if memory serves, the bridge. I paced myself painstakingly slow and kept my focus forward at all times. At the bridge was a load of navigation technology, with screens showing the Earth and it's magnetic field, atmosphere and the place were this ship, apparently a scout, was to observe. Under one panel was a Sectoid trying to fix a circuit board which was broken in the crash. Walsh gave him a tap with his suit's built in electric prod. He passed out and we tagged him for later. We then lined up. The last room to see was the reactor room, which was just a tube of extremely volatile stuff in a can and a small box which got the strange alien metal the ship was made out of to float on the Magnetic Field of the Earth. Walsh and I went in, scanning the room. On the opposite side of the can, was a Sectoid cowering in fear. He looked quickly at me, then my gun, and then me again. It raised it's hands in defeat. Walsh prodded him and Catharine reported,  
"Skyranger two, this is Insertion team, Coyote Run is complete, repeat, the Coyote Run is complete."  
  
I stared blankly at the typed report, mainly at the date near the top, which read: Jan. 17, 2006. Who would have known just two years ago that the U.N. would have to start an organization that killed the very thing that people have been looking for since the dawn of time?  
Cathy walked in, wearing a X-COM grey jumpsuit with a British flag on it. She stared at me with her grey eyes, and then around the room. My room was covered with maps of the world, technical manuals on the use of X-COM equipment and the occasional picture of my family. On my door was the one poster that set it all off: a picture of Uncle Sam holding a shotgun with a wrecked UFO behind him. On the bottom were the words: 'Uncle Sam needs YOU to save the world from interstellar tyranny!'  
She then looked directly over my shoulder at the report of yesterday. "Since you seem to know everything - and buy into every X-COM propaganda tool ever made - what did we get out of that?"  
"Forty-five pounds of E-115, twenty alien weapons, around 2,500 rounds for those weapons, seventy pounds of alien alloys, a fixable reactor and a cannibalized navigation control panel."  
"Anything else?"  
"A case of scotch from the farmers."  
She just stared at me.  
"It's not in the report."  
She just nodded.  
"Well, you'd better get going, Lt. Calhoun. The cafeteria is only going to be open for another half hour, and I know you haven't eaten."  
"How did you know?" I asked.  
"I just do."  
I spun around in my chair to look at her. She gently caressed my cheek, smiled and left the room. For the next three minutes, I would have been her slave if she asked. I settled for following her to the cafeteria. 


End file.
